May at work, demonstrating the intensity and crouching body position characteristic of the border collie working sheep.

May at work, demonstrating the intensity and crouching body position characteristic of the border collie working sheep.

Photo: Denise Wall

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Denise Wall and May go around the post at a sheepdog trial in Kentucky in May.

Denise Wall and May go around the post at a sheepdog trial in Kentucky in May.

Photo: Christine Koval

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Carol Lea Benjamin and her service dog, Sky, a border collie.

Carol Lea Benjamin and her service dog, Sky, a border collie.

Photo: Carol Lea Benjamin

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Denise Wall with her border collie, May, at a sheepdog trial in Canada last year.

Denise Wall with her border collie, May, at a sheepdog trial in Canada last year.

Photo: Robin French

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The smartest dogs in the world

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Can you teach an old dog breed new tricks? You can if the breed is the border collie.

The border collie is not your typical dog breed. Deemed the smartest of all dogs by psychology professor Stanley Coren in his book, "The Intelligence of Dogs," the tough little sheepdogs have data to back up the IQ claims.

The two smartest dogs on record, with the proven ability to understand up to 340 words, are both border collies. One of them, Betsy, appeared on the cover of the March 2008 issue of National Geographic, which documented the brainpower of a number of animals, including another border collie, Rico. The dogs, brought to the attention of scientists by their proud owners, were the subject of research conducted in their own homes by Juliane Kaminski, a cognitive psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

But two border collies considerably closer to home have demonstrated just how versatile the border collie's intelligence really is.

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Their names are May and Sky, and they're the descendents of generations of working sheep herding dogs. That's what border collies were bred for, and it's the quality their passionate advocates treasure the most.

Border collies continue to work on farms and ranches all over the world, helping shepherds with their flocks just as they did hundreds of years ago in the British Isles where they originated. They're also tested in competitions known as sheepdog trials, which can draw crowds of more than 25,000 spectators in the U.S. and are televised in Great Britain.

May and Sky were bred by Denise Wall, who farms sheep in North Carolina and has trained border collies to the highest levels in sheepdog trials. May is still living with Denise, working her sheep and competing -- successfully -- in trials.

Sky, however, left Wall's farm at the age of eight weeks, to go somewhere that required her to learn a lifetime of "new tricks": Manhattan. Sky is a working service dog, assisting her disabled owner, writer and dog-trainer Carol Lea Benjamin.

The story of these two puppies is told in a new book, co-authored by Wall and Benjamin, "Do Border Collies Dream of Sheep?" It's a detailed account of the two dogs' lives from birth to the age of around two, when the sisters have a reunion at Wall's farm.

Benjamin has a condition known as Crohn's disease, which causes debilitating, intense pain. Around 20 years ago, she discovered that her then-dog, Dexter, would realize she was having an attack and attempt to comfort her.

Somehow, she said, "He knew where the pain was, he knew when it started, he knew when it stopped, and he knew it was his job to help me."

She trained him to apply heat and pressure at the first signs of pain, and his assistance enabled her to recover quickly from the incidents -- a precious gift.

"You're taken out of the loop of the world pretty often when you have pain so bad you can't do anything," she said. "He changed all that."

Dexter, a pit bull mix Benjamin adopted from a shelter, surprised Benjamin with his ability to help her with her pain. "As far as I know, Dexter invented the category of a service dog for Crohn's disease," Benjamin said.

Then, about five years ago, Benjamin, who was being assisted by Dexter's successor, Flash, realized it was time to train a new dog. "I knew I needed a dog who was smart enough to learn what Dexter figured out on his own," she told me. "That's why I chose a border collie."

A mutual friend introduced her to Wall, and they began the correspondence that ended with little Sky flying to the big city with Benjamin.

How can a dog hard-wired to work sheep, and born and raised on a farm, adapt to the noise and chaos of Manhattan? It's a question that can be answered by looking at just what makes the border collie such a great sheep dog.

"Border collies are bred to read sheep and their shepherd's desires," said Wall. "This ability to pay attention to subtle cues and their intelligence makes them ideal in the proper hands."

Because border collies traditionally work closely with their shepherds, they're particularly tuned to the kind of close working relationship that develops between a service dog and the person she is assisting.

"A big part of the success in each of these jobs is the bond and communication between the dog and its human work partner," Wall said. "Every look, movement or even change in demeanor is filled with information for both the dog and the person."

Benjamin, who is a renowned dog trainer and author of books about canine behavior, was struck by Sky's quick adjustment to her new life. "The big deal I was worried about was to get her used to Flash, who was old and cranky," she said.

During his years working as a service dog, Flash had become uninterested in playing with other dogs, and Benjamin didn't have any idea how he'd respond to the introduction of a puppy.

Sky, however, was undaunted. "She was so incredibly bossy," Benjamin said, laughing. "She was just so confident, and knew what she wanted and felt was her right. She had him playing like I hadn't seen in years. He was absolutely delighted to have her in his life."

The border collie puppy also showed immediate aptitude for her work as a service dog. She would watch what Flash did, and try to emulate him, from simple things like sitting on command to less-obvious tasks like recognizing and responding to the onset of Benjamin's pain.

"She immediately started copying what Flash was doing to help me," Benjamin said, "And as she did that, Flash started backing off and letting her do those parts of the job she would do."

And May, back at the farm? She, too, was learning what she needed to know to be a sheep dog, using the same intelligence and powers of observation her sister was utilizing in New York City. And, it seems, the same bossy, confident personality.

"For me, working stock dogs need to be a little bit full of themselves, have a little more independence and confidence," Wall said. "May just seemed a little snotty sometimes, with a little bit of devilment to her, and I thought that would work out for me."

Her prediction was right. "She's continued to develop and may be the best all around dog I've ever had," Wall told me. "She's very useful in all the work situations I have for her, and has started a successful competitive trialing career at the highest level of sheepdog competition."

In the most memorable part of "Do Border Collies Dream of Sheep?" Sky returns to Wall's farm, and is introduced to sheep dog work. Although she wasn't at May's level, she caught on quickly.

"These behaviors are hardwired in their brain from birth," explained Wall. "Environment can affect how a border collie's instincts are expressed, but if they're there and strong enough, the dog will 'turn on' and do certain instinctive behaviors more or less right out of the box."

Here's to smart, snotty dogs, and all the things they do for us -- old tricks, and new.